CoE Digest #210 Q1 - "For rest of the turn" effects during Free Council
Posted: Sun Jul 13, 2025 10:19 pm
Can I play “for the rest of the turn” effects like First Of The Order during the Free Council?
The Free Council (or generally the End-of-Game portion of the game) doesn’t take place during a turn, meaning that there isn’t a resource player nor hazard player during the steps required to determine a winner and thus resources can’t normally be played. However, when each character makes a corruption check during the first step of determining the winner, the game rules provide a specific allowance for either player to take resource/character actions that directly affect one or more of those corruption checks, including cards that reduce a character’s corruption point total, prevent a character from being discarded, or would otherwise affect a corruption check upon the action’s resolution.
The question, then, is whether a resource/character action that would directly affect a corruption check may be taken even if the action has an effect that lasts “until the end of the turn,” “for the rest of the turn,” etc. (again, given that this portion of the game is not technically during a turn). CRF 6 provides a hint at the answer, as the card Magical Harp was ruled as being usable at the Free Council. Here is the card’s original text:
As such, we will be updating the Rule 10.3.i of the CoE’s Official Game Rules with the following clarification:
The Free Council (or generally the End-of-Game portion of the game) doesn’t take place during a turn, meaning that there isn’t a resource player nor hazard player during the steps required to determine a winner and thus resources can’t normally be played. However, when each character makes a corruption check during the first step of determining the winner, the game rules provide a specific allowance for either player to take resource/character actions that directly affect one or more of those corruption checks, including cards that reduce a character’s corruption point total, prevent a character from being discarded, or would otherwise affect a corruption check upon the action’s resolution.
The question, then, is whether a resource/character action that would directly affect a corruption check may be taken even if the action has an effect that lasts “until the end of the turn,” “for the rest of the turn,” etc. (again, given that this portion of the game is not technically during a turn). CRF 6 provides a hint at the answer, as the card Magical Harp was ruled as being usable at the Free Council. Here is the card’s original text:
And the CRF:Unique. Hoard item. Tap Magical Harp to cancel all actions for the rest of the turn that discard a target character in bearer’s company. Bearer makes a corruption check. This item may also be so tapped during opponent’s site phase.
Although this CRF may seem specific to Magical Harp, ICE’s NetRep confirmed on 10/7/96 that similar effects are treated the same way:Magical Harp
Can be used at the Free Council.
In other words, until-end-of-turn effects played during the turn prior to the End-of-Game would no longer be in effect during the End-of-Game steps, but they are allowed to be taken during the End-of-Game “like” Magical Harp. Given the above, this committee feels that it is prudent to explicitly extend the Magical Harp allowance to other resource/character actions with similar duration of effect so long as they meet the requirement of directly affecting a corruption check and any other active conditions are met.>Another question was - is the free council technically still part of
>the old turn... so ... do short events that last until the end of the
>turn still count in the free council?
The Free Council is technically not any turn, although effects like
Magical Harp will work if used during the [Free Council].
As such, we will be updating the Rule 10.3.i of the CoE’s Official Game Rules with the following clarification:
Determining the Winner, Step 1 (Corruption Checks) - Starting with the player who took the last turn, each player makes a corruption check for each of their non-Ringwraith, non-Balrog characters in the order of that player’s choosing. Either player may take resource/character actions if doing so would directly affect one of these corruption checks, including tapping one or more characters in the same company to provide +1 support, or actions that would reduce a character’s corruption point total or prevent a character from being discarded. These actions may be taken even if their effect(s) would normally only last until the end of the turn (e.g. “until the end of the turn,” “for the rest of the turn,” etc.) and instead last until the end of the game.